Meanwhile, India was tossing and turning while lying awake in bed. She rubbed her stomach, and India’s hand wandered to her Venus mound. She was feeling really horny and missed Melquan. It was after two in the morning. Where was he? Her mind raced.
India turned on the television and channel surfed for a moment. She turned off the television and walked to her bedroom window. She saw the lights of the city, and could see clear to the Bronx from her window. India couldn’t picture what Melquan was doing. What kind of business would he be handling at this hour? She wondered.
Impatiently India glanced at the time and her cellphone. India wanted to call him, but she kept telling herself over and over again, she didn’t care. She had a difficult time convicing herself of that.
Chapter Twenty
Messin’ With The Devil
Monday went by too slowly for Jose Jr. in school. He was able to get through the day with no problem and couldn’t wait to get home. Jose Jr. rushed to get his sister Maria and together they hurried home. About an hour later Jose Sr. arrived home from another stressful day at his job. He smiled when he embraced his daughter.
“Oh my little princess,” he greeted.
“Hey daddy,” she screamed excitedly.
“How’re you feeling, dad? I’m going to the library, okay?”
“Okay, but you’ve been spending an awful lot of time there. What you got a job there?”
“Dad I’ve got more than one project. I got a science project and then the geography teacher said she wanted us to be there and…”
“Oh, alright then. You better let me see some A’s at the end of the semester, that’s all.”
Jose left to get his jacket from his room and Maria followed behind him. He looked at her, hoping she doesn’t want to go with him.
“Jose, so you’re going to the library, huh?”she asked sarcastically. “Jose, I know where you’re really going.”
“What? You better shut up. You don’t even know nothing.”
“Really I do, Jose. I know you’re not going anywhere near the library, Jose,” Maria said with a knowing smile.
“Shut your mouth! You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Alright, since you know so much, where am I going then?”
“You, Jose, are going to,” Maria said, pausing to recall in her mind every exact detail of what happened.
She nodded her head before continuing. She may have been younger in years, but Maria was way ahead of her older brother.
“Go ahead and say what you don’t know,” Jose said, daring his sister.
“Alright, you’re going to the horseshoe! I saw you be—” Maria almost shouted.
But Jose wouldn’t let her. He immediately grabbed her and pulled her inside his room. Jose looked outside his room door to see if his father was about. Satisfied, he turned his attention back to Maria.
“Shut your mouth, girl!” he said, putting his index finger to his lips.
He stared at her for a couple beats as if studying her. Now he had to find out how much she knew.
“Maria, you better be quiet before daddy hears you. Maria, tell me what exactly did you see?”
“I saw you standing around with these other boys. Then they handed something to you. Then you handed to another man and he gave you money for it.”
His whole secret life was unmasked by a nosey little sister. He couldn’t take it out of her mind but maybe he could distort the picture.
“Oh, ha, I was just doing a favor for one of my friends. Ahem… ah and he was waiting for his dad. So his dad’s friend came and got it from me,” Jose lied, confusing even himself.
He could feel sweat formed around his cheeks as he spun his yarn. Jose tied himself into knots. His stomach tightened and his legs weakened.
“You are lying. Daddy don’t want us to go there because they sell crack—”
Fifteen year old Jose was sweating bricks. He had been busted by his thirteen year old sister. She glanced at him like a judge about to execute sentence on the guilty.
“Maria, Maria tell me… Did you tell dad?”
“Nope, but I’ve been thinking about it,” she said firmly.
“Good, please, Maria, please don’t tell dad, please. Maria you know dad, he will kill me if he found out I was even closely there,” Jose pleaded.
“Then why are you doing it, huh? If you know that he will kill you? That’s really stupid, Jose. Are you crazy?”
Jose offered no answer. He stared dumbfounded by his sister, thinking of the death penalty he was now facing. There was no explanation, but maybe there was another way out of this. The idea clicked in his mind. Jose smiled then hugged his sister.
“Maria, I can give anything you want. You name it. Money…?”
Jose reached into his pocket and pulled out a small knot. He peeled off couple twenty dollar bills. He offered it to his sister.
“No…” she muttered. “I’m okay.”
“Maria take it. I’ll give you a hundred dollars right now. Just please don’t tell daddy nothing.”
He tried to shove a couple bills at Maria she stared at his hand as if he was giving her trash. There was a look of disgust on her face. The contours of her expression quickly transformed, and soon Maria was in tears.
“That’s dirty money. Just like daddy says, Jose. The bible says money is the root of all evil!”
Maria was crying and Jose hugged her. She pushed him away, staring at the money he was still holding in his hand. He lined his pocket with the dirty money. Jose saw the tears in his sister’s eyes, and his heart cried.
“Jose, please stop going there to the horseshoe with those boys. I don’t want the money. I just want you to stop.”
“Alright, Maria if you stop crying, I promise I will not go out there today. I will not go out there ever again.”
“Okay, if you promise then I’ll stop.”
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was their father wandering through the apartment. He pushed on the door.
“Jose, you seen your sister…?”
“Yes dad, she’s in here,” the boy calmly said.
“What’s going on in here?” Jose Sr. asked, pushing on the door. “Open the door, now.”
Jose Jr. stared at Maria then he quickly opened the door. His father presence in the room made it even tinier. He walked in sniffing the air.
“Hi dad,” Maria said.
“There you are. I was looking for you. What you doing in here?”
“Hey daddy,” Maria said, laughing. “I came in to see this video on BET.”
“Princess, why are your eyes so red? You’s crying or—”
A great hush fell on the tiny room. It landed awkwardly, and Maria stared through her dad’s perception. Jose looked on, guilty as charged. He sprang into action.
“Oh yeah, she was. This real sad documentary about the life of Aliyah came on. Then they showed the video, Missing You. And it made Maria cry. You know her, she cries for everything.”
“It made me think about her. She died so young,” Maria said sadly.
She seemed to be on the verge of tearing up again. Jose moved closer to her and gave her a hug.
“Oh, don’t worry about dying, princess. You’ve got a lot of living to do,” Jose Sr. said embracing his daughter. He glanced at his son and said, “I thought you’s going to the library?”
“Dad out of nowhere I caught a migraine headache. I ain’t going nowhere. I’m gonna try to find what I need online. I’m leaving that library thing alone for now.”
Maria and her dad walked out the door. He had his arm around her. Just before exiting, she turned around and winked at her brother. He nodded seemingly deep in his thoughts.
Chapter Twenty One
Living It
Last night, Precious had gotten all the attention she craved from Melquan. Things were back to reality when she awoke the next morning. She was alone and Melquan was with his main chick, doing only God knows what.
Precious che
cked the time on her cable box. It was 11:30 a.m. Her next move was to check her cellphone to see if she had missed any calls from Melquan, Mike Copeland, or any of the workers. There were none. Slowly she began suspecting something was wrong.
She began wondering what Mike Copeland was really doing in her house last night. Precious looked where the stash used to be and that was gone, so were the guns. It finally dawned on Precious. Melquan had clearly left and shitted on her. she quickly dialed his digits and he picked up.
“Melquan that shit ain’t funny. What you did last night was really fucked up! Hold up, I can’t hear you,” Precious screamed into her cellphone.
“What ya talkin’ ’bout…?” he asked still chuckling.
“How could you pull some bullshit stunt like what you fucking did..?”
“I don’t know—”
“Melquan don’t play stupid with me. You know exactly what I’m talking about! You had Mike Copeland take all da guns and drugs out of the apartment while me and you were in the bathroom. Then I’m sitting there wondering why nobody ain’t call me all day…? Why you do that?”
“A’ight Precious, ya want da truth? Ya violated. Like I told ya before, anybody but him...”
“Oh, so I’m not down no more, Melquan?”
“Ya ass his-story now!”
“Mel, Nashawn and I didn’t even do nothing. He took me to the movies and then we went and got sumthin to eat. Ain’t nothin’ happen, Melquan… Please believe me. I only did it to make you jealous.”
“Yeah, you really expect me to believe that shit, huh? A bitch like ya could easily set a nigga up.”
“Melquan, after all this time we been dealin’ with each other, you just gonna cut me out of your life like that, huh?”
“Bitch, ya shouldn’t have put yaself in this position. So ya only got ya ass to thank.”
“After all I did? This how you reward me, huh? I held you down. Kept your stash, I sucked your dick when you need me to, fucked you whenever, wherever you wanted. And you straight shitted on me, Melquan!”
There was a moment of silence, but Precious heard what she thought was laughter coming from the other end. It made her furious.
“You dirty muthafucka!”
“Chill with all da name callin’, just go see Mike Copeland. Tell him to give you a couple a dollars for ya pockets. It’s your severance pay, bitch! After that we even.”
There was a long pause between them. It was as if the line had gone dead. Precious swallowed back the tears.
“You there?” he asked.
“You know Melquan, you can’t be possibly serious. You can’t just fuck me over like that! I don’t deserve it. All I was doin’ was tryin’ to get your attention.”
“That you did… Precious, ya can take it how ya wanna take it. Our business is over for now, and that’s all I got to say.”
“What!”
“At the end of day, I still got mad love for ya, but I certainly ain’t in love with ya ass!”
“Melquan, fuck you alright! Fuck you! You can take that shit and shove it up your fuckin’ ass! You’re gonna get yours, Melquan! You hear me, muthafucka!” Precious screamed loudly.
Standing and gazing out of the window of his project building, Melquan and Mike Copeland gave each other daps on the execution of their plan.
“I told you, Melquan, I knew she knew sumthin when I seen da bitch earlier today. She just rolled her eyes at me.”
“Yeah, she was tight. When I told her she wasn’t down anymore, she fuckin’ screamed her fuckin’ head off. She sound like she might do sumthin stupid…” Melquan’s voice trailed.
Mike Copeland eyes were trained on him, anxiously awaiting his doubts to be revealed. Melquan was thinking too long.
“Whatcha talkin’ ’bout, my dude? She gon’ do sump’n? Like what?”
“Call po-po… I mean she still knows a lot—”
“I wish da bitch would. I’ll murder her ass so fast!”
“Mike, did put that stash where I told you to?”
“You know I did. Don’t worry about that, we good.”
“Now you see why I told you to put everything up, right? You were careful so that nobody followed you, right? I mean you made sure, right?”
“Yeah, what you think my dude? I’m a security risk? I got this.”
A sudden knock on the door alerted Melquan. Mike Copeland grabbed his gun. He had it cocked and ready before Melquan peeped out. Smiling, Melquan opened the door.
“What’s good, shorty?”
“Melquan,” Sheron greeted, walking into the apartment.
He gave Mike Copeland dap and walked over to Melquan, embracing him and showing him much love.
“Yeah shorty, that’s da fuck I’m talkin’ ’bout right there! How you?”
“I’m okay…”
“Yeah, that’s good. So where you comin’ from?”
“School…”
“How was school?”
“It’s good. But today, my friend almost got me in trouble.”
“Word…? What happened?”
“Well, he threw a paper at me. I threw it back. The teacher saw me and not him.”
“So, did you tell on your friend?”
“No,” Sheron immediately said. “That’s my friend. Why would I do that for?”
“That’s good. Never tell, especially on your friends. You hear me, shorty?”
“Yeah, but I already knew that. I ain’t no snitch, Melquan. I wasn’t gonna tell.”
“Yeah, and you better keep it like that, feel me, shorty!” Mike said, intervening.
“Be easy, Mike…” Melquan’s voice trailed.
Mike walked to the kitchen, leaving Melquan beaming from what the kid told him. He was that proud of what Sheron did, and admired the quality he deemed good in Sheron. Melquan pulled out a knot, and peeled off a couple of bills.
“Get some new sneaks and jeans with that. Keep the rest on the low. You hear me, right?”
“Thanks, Melquan.
“Lemme ask you sumthin shorty, you don’t give your mom any of that money I give you, right?”
“No, you gave it to me. So that means only I’m the one who’s supposed to have it.”
“That’s right. Do not give your mother nothing, you hear me? Not even one dime…” Melquan’s voice trailed and he sunk deep into his thoughts. After a few beats he spoke. “I don’t know if it’s my place to tell you this, but I will. Your mother’s on drugs.”
“I know,” Sheron said, nodding his head.
“What…? How do you know?”
“Whenever she comes in from outside… She goes straight in her room. And when she comes out, she be actin’ all funny. Like somebody is chasin’ her. She makes me stay in my room and cut off the TV.”
“Word…?”
“Word up…”
“How does that make you feel, shorty?”
“I feel bad sometimes, especially when there’s no food. And she keep tellin’ me she’s goin’ to the store to get something to eat… I feel bad when she starts walkin’ around the apartment naked like she going crazy…”
“Sheron, when you get hungry and she ain’t around, just come knock on my door, like you did today,” Melquan said in a saddened tone.
“Okay…”
“I’m a leave word with my mother to take care of you. Whatever you want, you let her know.”
“Yep…”
“I mean if you need a place to sleep, you got that too, right?”
“Okay…”
Melquan gave Sheron dap. By the time Mike Copeland returned to the room, Sheron was already out the door. Mike Copeland glanced around the living room before speaking.
“I know you think it real cool. But really, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have shorty up here. You be too trustin’ my dude. See what we had to do with Precious, huh? We runnin’ out a places.”
“Nah, shorty’s good. You heard what he said, right?”
“Yeah, but you never know
who his so-called good ass be talkin’ innocently with.”
Melquan and Mike Copeland walked down the stairs and stood outside the building. Across the avenue, Justice and his dreadlocks friend were sitting in a late model tinted window Cadillac, observing them.
“There goes that nigga, Melquan right there. He wearing the blue Yankee fitted and the other dude in the black Yankee is Mike Copeland, the shooter,” Justice said, pointing out the window of the Caddy.
“That’s him, huh?” the dread asked. “You sure ‘bout dat…?”
“Positive…”
“How we gonna bag that nigga? Him and his man always together and shit.”
“Yeah they are, except when they’re home. I’m sure they don’t sleep together. Divide and conquer,” Justice smiled.
Chapter Twenty Two
Gotcha Open
India and her son, Zach, were finishing dinner at home. They had been having a great time, but it was almost time for Zach to go to bed. She expected Zach to resist, instead he was cooperative. She was so pleased and allowed him an extra half hour to play videogames.
“Mom, dinner sure was good,” he smiled, putting his empty plate in the sink. Zach hurried off to his room.
“I’ll come in and see you, when it’s time for bed,” India called after him.
Melquan would be home soon. She started cleaning up, a chore she wasn’t fond of, but it gave India her time to think. She was in the kitchen packing dishes away when her cellphone rang.
India picked it up expecting Melquan’s number, saw the caller ID blocked. She thought about not answering and was about to put the phone away. The phone rang until she couldn’t ignore it anymore. It was the same blocked number. This time she answered.
“Hello, who is this?” India asked.
“I don’t know you, but I seen you. Precious is my name… I’m da bitch who was sitting between Melquan’s legs in the drive over in Edenwald. Member that day when you rolled up on him…? Yeah, that was me. I don’t know what he’s been sayin to you about me, but we sleepin together too. Whenever he’s not with you then we together. Melquan my part time boo.”
Hard White Page 17